tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87236256595395917722018-02-16T05:54:20.956+00:00lunatic obscurityJonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.comBlogger403125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-6476382894892637092018-02-13T11:30:00.001+00:002018-02-13T11:30:29.493+00:00All Star Pro Wrestling (PS2)
I'm sure you're aware that there are plenty of older games that look a lot better, and ever have certain graphical effects that only work properly on an older CRT TV. Some, like old rhythm games are actually borderline unplayable on flatscreen TVs, for various reason to do with refresh rates and the like. However, All Star Pro Wrestling is the first videogame that feels like it was made to not Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-51278559998017987182018-02-08T15:30:00.002+00:002018-02-08T15:30:40.637+00:00Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl (Mega Drive)
Before I actually start talking about this game, I want to talk about its title. Say it out loud: "Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl", and there's something somewhat satisfying in the way it flows. So much so, that for years, I'd assumed that Jerry Glanville was a fictional character, invented purely for the sound of his name, but apparently, he's some kind of sporting multiclasser, having Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-3552063627678259562018-02-03T22:25:00.003+00:002018-02-03T22:25:28.678+00:00Battle Tycoon - Flash Hiders SFX (SNES)
I complain a lot about how many action games, especially those released in recent years, are ruined by the addition of experience points, skill progression, and the negative difficulty curve that those features create. But of course, there are exceptions to every rules, and Battle Tycoon is one of them. It's the sequel to a PC Engine game I've not yet played called Flash Hiders, and both games Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-7076669316979904722018-01-29T16:22:00.006+00:002018-01-29T16:24:47.077+00:00Vindex (Amiga)
This was going to be a post about a game entitled "Space Harrier: Return to the Fantasy Zone", which is one of those semi-official western sequels to Japanese games I talked about in my review of Dragon's Revenge. It's an especially obscure one, too, since as far as I can tell, it was only released in a compilation along with the original Space Harrier as well as a couple of other arcade ports.Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-21329925606862252572018-01-24T17:49:00.001+00:002018-01-24T17:49:12.632+00:00Truck Kyousoukyoku - Ai to Kanashimi no Rodeo (PS2)
This game's title means "Truck Mad Dash Melody: Rodeo of Love and Sadness", and it can most easily be described as "Outrun in a truck", though it's also much more than that! Like Outrun, it is a linear against-the-clock racing games with branching paths (though the branches just lead to different routes through the same stages, not to completely different stages as in Outrun) there's also a Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-48608249710749635242018-01-19T23:56:00.000+00:002018-01-19T23:56:07.675+00:00Megatudo 2096 (Playstation)
The first thing I want to say about this game, before I actually say anything about the game itself, is that though there's no Japanese text ingame as far as I can tell, the title itself is somehow mistransliterated, judging by the voice on the title screen. That voice calls it "Megatude 2096", which is actually a worse title than the one written down, as it sounds like the dominant personalityJonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-56200773485990050022018-01-14T14:32:00.004+00:002018-01-14T14:32:58.181+00:00Death Wish 3 (C64)
In case you aren't aware, this isn't the third in a series of games entitled Death Wish, but is a licensed game based on the third in a series of movies by that name, in which Charles Bronson plays a kind of vengeful war diety named Paul Kersey. The third movie sees him descend upon a version of New York that looks more like Rossington, where he falls in love with a woman young enough to be hisJonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-57316016058131341032018-01-08T17:53:00.001+00:002018-01-08T17:53:24.990+00:00Silver Valley v1.00 (Master System)
I don't know what it is about the Master System, but for some reason, it seems to attract homebrew with really great production values. For example, a few years ago, there was an amazing port of the Bruce Lee game that was originally on various 8-bit microcomputers in the 1980s. Silver Valley continues that tradition, but this time, it's an all-new game! Just as a disclaimer, I'm assuming from Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-3647513009207911502018-01-03T19:18:00.000+00:002018-01-03T19:18:07.725+00:00Zusar Vasar (Dreamcast)
Zusar Vasar is the kind of game that just doesn't get made anymore: it's a racing game that isn't about driving either go-karts round theme park-looking tracks or realistic cars around realistic tracks. Instead, it's a futuristic (possibly post-apocalyptic) chariot racing game, in which the chariots are pulled by robotic animals of various kinds. And they race around a variety of locations: Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-9493710112031959462017-12-28T12:59:00.001+00:002017-12-28T12:59:23.565+00:00Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting (DS)
Hajime no Ippo is a comic about boxing that's been running (and continues to run) since 1989, and it's had a few videogame adaptations in that time, too, some of which got brought to the west (presumably after being de-Japanified) as the "Victorious Boxers" seres. Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting wasn't brought over, but there is a partial translation patch out there for it, and, to be honest, evenJonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-14919151302022982062017-12-23T16:10:00.000+00:002017-12-23T16:10:21.504+00:00Micom Slayer (PC)
So, this is a free Japanese game, and if I forget to add the link here when I upload this post, please comment and remind me to (since I write posts as plain text documents well in advance of them actually being uploaded). Anyway, it's also a total love letter to the 8-bit microcomputers (or "micoms", if you will) of 1980s Japan, like the MSX, the Sharp MZ-700, the NEC PC88, and so on, as it's Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-70960887059568572882017-12-17T13:26:00.003+00:002017-12-17T13:26:40.640+00:00Brave Blade (Arcade)
I'll start by being honest here, and admit that the thing that drew me towards this game is the graphics. They're that amazing kind of 3D graphics that was prevalent among arcade fighting and racing games from the mid-90s up to about the turn of the century, but it's a rare example of a shooting game in that visual style. And it does it with flair, too, as Brave Blade is set in a great-looking Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-80953233719041427932017-12-12T16:08:00.000+00:002017-12-12T16:08:15.134+00:00Simple 2000 Series Vol. 60: The Tokusatsu Henshin Hero
Like the last PS2 game I covered, Seigi no Mikata, The Tokusatsu Henshin Hero is a game that's heavily themed around the genre of Japanese superhero TV shows (though you could probably guess that from the title). Being a Simple 2000 game, however, it eschews the strange meta "living in a tv show world" approach of Seigi no Mikata, and takes the more obvious path of being a beat em up in which Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-3306138112845322112017-12-07T16:36:00.001+00:002017-12-07T16:36:28.503+00:00Dragon's Revenge (Mega Drive)
So, you might remember a while back, when I reviewed Jaki Crush, the sequel to Devil Crush. Well, in a convoluted sort of way, Dragon's Revenge is also the sequel to Devil Crush. You see, it was Tengen who brought the Mega Drive port of Devil Crush to the west, and while they did so, they also changed the name to Dragon's Fury, and removed pentagrams, coffins, crosses and various other things, Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-74308802170905060962017-12-02T16:03:00.001+00:002017-12-02T16:03:20.145+00:00Coaster Race (MSX)
It's always impressive to see games on old computers do things that those computers just weren't designed for, like parallax scrolling, or, in this case, a pretty good bit of faux-sprite scaling, in an Outrun-esque racing game. It's even got hills and, true to its roller coaster theming, loops! Plus it plays pretty well, too.
So, on the title screen, you're presented with three modes: 1P Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-63610954804775794082017-11-27T15:54:00.001+00:002017-11-27T15:54:16.347+00:00Heavy Smash (Arcade)
Other than a few remaining outliers like the Everybody's Golf series, sports games that aren't staid, po-faced "simulations" starring real life players are a pretty rare thing nowadays, and sci-fi/fantasy-themed games about fictional sports even moreso. And that's a shame, because those games are usually pretty great, Heavy Smash included.
What it is is a lot like a simplified, Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-57079964054585672132017-11-22T18:47:00.003+00:002017-11-22T18:47:38.684+00:00Airship Q (PS Vita)
The first I heard of this game was that it was an import-only PS Vita game that had received an official translation, and instantly went and bought a copy, just because we really should reward the publishers who do good things like this, just as much as we should shun those who engage in unethical business practices like encouraging real money gambling and so on. (How topical! I feel lucky thatJonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-88397984215104473762017-11-16T15:30:00.003+00:002017-11-16T15:34:02.705+00:00Shadows of the Tusk (Saturn)
It seems slightly strange to me there there are two obscure Saturn games that use pre-rendered sprites and have character designs by Susumu Matsushita. (The other one, you might remember me covering a while ago, is Willy Wombat.) Anyway, Shadows of the Tusk is a turn-based strategy game, that, to add onto the unusuality of the whole affair, had online play via the X-BAND modem, though there's Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-66610920221230598522017-11-11T16:55:00.000+00:002017-11-11T16:55:10.434+00:00Road Spirits (PC Engine)
Road Spirits isn't a particuarly good or original game, but it does serve as a useful example to point out and debunk two annoying habits of the kinds of people who write videogames reviews as if they're writing consumer reports on household appliances rather than subjective critiques of creative works.
First up is the idea that the length of time between starting a game and seeing its Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-83950769389337785782017-11-06T21:35:00.001+00:002017-11-06T21:35:34.508+00:00Eojjeonji Joheun Il-i Saenggil Geot Gateun Jeonyeok (PC)
So, that long title apparently translates to "A Night Where Good Things Are Bound To Happen", which is also the name of the comic on which it's based, which was the first professional work (as far as I can tell) of Lee myung-Jin, who later went on to create the fantasy comic Ragnarok, which he'd then abandon after that comic's spin-off MMORPG turned out to be wildly more profitable. Boo. This Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-90028588436006871752017-11-01T16:45:00.004+00:002017-11-01T16:45:49.318+00:00Seigi no Mikata (PS2)
Most tokusatsu-themed games, whether they're based on actual shows, or just inspired by the genre's aesthetic and concepts, are fighting games or beat em ups. That's what I was expecting from Seigi no Mikata, but it turned out to be something completely different: an adventure game that attempts to simulate the entire role of a main character in a tokusatsu show, not just the parts where Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-5947332116117862522017-10-27T19:15:00.003+01:002017-10-27T19:15:56.215+01:00Lethal Crash Race (Arcade)
Lethal Crash Race is a game that can pay testament to the incredible popularity and influence of Street Fighter II on the arcade scene of the early nineties, as though it's not a fighting game, it clearly takes a lot of influence from Capcom's epoch-defining game. That's not to say that it's one of those racing games that's heavy on the fantasy and violence: though a lot of effort has clearly Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-60334587203330319582017-10-22T12:38:00.003+01:002017-10-22T12:38:34.326+01:00Paneltia Story: Kerun no Daibouken (Saturn)
The "rebuild the world" RPG is a grand old tradition, dating back to at least the early nineties with games like Terranigma (if there are any such games pre-16 bit, I don't know about them), and still lingers today with the likes of Dragon Quest Builders and maybe even Fallout 4 could be considered an entry, with its focus on taking an active hand in rebuilding civilisation. Paneltia Story is Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-55540720188278227842017-10-17T20:54:00.002+01:002017-10-17T20:54:20.687+01:00Tsuushin Taisen Logic Battle Daisessen (Dreamcast)
I feel like I'm playing a lot of games recently that can be described as a kind of combination of elements from other games, and this is one of them. The constituent parts in this case being Battleship and Minesweeper, both grid-based games about naval combat, though this game is themed around the inhabitants of a floating island where it's always springtime, but is currently suffering a Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723625659539591772.post-57484958897278276662017-10-11T20:51:00.002+01:002017-10-11T20:51:27.650+01:00Penguin-kun Wars 2 (MSX)
There's a chance you might have played the first Penguin-kun Wars game, which was ported to the NES and Game Boy and released in the west as King of the Zoo, but in case you haven't, it was about a fictional sport played by cute animals.
The sport itself (which doesn't have a name, as far as I can tell) is a kind of combination of bowling and dodgeball: the participants stand at either end Jonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838220453077339756noreply@blogger.com1